Kukla's Korner Hockey

- Didn’t understand why Steve Yzerman passed on Seth Jones last June. Understand it less now. Jones is playing 23 minutes a game in Nashville on defence — and doesn’t Tampa Bay need defencemen? — and Yzerman’s pick, Jonathan Drouin is playing those minutes for Halifax of the Quebec junior league.

- When the reportorial silliness surrounding Joe Thornton came out the other day, the first question in my mind was: Would Bob McKenzie have reported Thornton’s rather funny and not necessarily newsworthy dressing room comment?

Would Lance Hornby have? Would Elliotte Friedman have? Would Eric Duhatschek have? Would any of the most respected and regarded reporters in hockey have gone public with Thornton’s made-for-locker-room retort.

My gut reaction: No.

We all have heard things over the years, some funny, some silly, some disgusting off the cuff dressing room comments, often from player to player, away from notebooks and tape recorders. Hockey players — all athletes really — can be rather childish in their own environments, their locker rooms or dressing rooms. Those of us who do our jobs in and around that area have to understand and respect the fine line between what is news, what is reporting and what is, in fact, play.

Anyone who has been in the media industry around sports for any period of time has been exposed to some kind of Joe Thornton moment. We laugh. We chuckle about it as if it’s our own private joke. And we move on.

Comments

Didn’t understand why Steve Yzerman passed on Seth Jones last June. Understand it less now. Jones is playing 23 minutes a game in Nashville on defence — and doesn’t Tampa Bay need defencemen? — and Yzerman’s pick, Jonathan Drouin is playing those minutes for Halifax of the Quebec junior league.

My guess is he thought about Victor Hedman and decided someone else could take that task on.